During my Lab To Market coursework at Rady School of Management at the University of California, San Diego, we opened an online shop for supporting and promoting goods created by physically challenged artisans from India. The website where you can buy these beautiful goods is www.karigormarketplace.com.
Following are some of my initial steps taken to get to the initial launch. (May 2018)
Creating the website - easy - wix.com
Tip: Sign up - but do not pay. In a week, WIX will email you a 50% off their premium plan - go for it. It's a year good enough time to think through.
Overall the setup of the website was easy. WIX tool is quite effective in making your life easy.
Wix.com has two editors - desktop and mobile. And since most consumers are smartphone savvy - take a mobile-first approach. Ensure you test the view on mobile mode often and realign content.
Do not use "Justify" as text alignment - it messes up when the screen size changes. Always use left-justified text.
wix.com has SEO optimization built into it. Think about 5 keywords to be placed on your website header tags. So it appears on search quickly.
For images - use this website - https://unsplash.com/ They have plenty of free high-resolution, great contextual photos for your next website. It is free, and you will not violate any copyright information. All my images are from this website.
Get your domain name from godaddy.com or wix.com also has it. I purchased the domain prior to registering with wix.com - hence I had to follow wix.com instructions to transfer GoDaddy's configuration to Wix. It was not hard - just following the given instruction did it.
Tip - the same tip as Wix signup - search for your domain name, but do not sign up. In a week, they will sell you the same domain name 50% off for one year!
Gmail set up with your domain name - go to google mail - follow Gmail instruction, it was also easy. Choose your service provider as wix.com - when setting up Gmail - they have specific instructions per DNS provider.
Gmail provides an introductory $5/month domain-specific email address.
For business formation - I did settle for a DBA(Doing business as) entity. I am inspired by lean methods(what is the MVP to learn the maximum amount with minimum investment), my first attempt to learn the value chain by going to farmer's markets and speaking with customers in person. If the concept is viable and customers buy into the idea of artisan empowerment - I will form an LLC and indeed launch online retail or do Amazon FBA - probably few years down the road.
Forming the DBA was super easy - go to the San Diego County Assessor office - and get a license. Cost $42. Once you get the paperwork - contact the local paper and provide a fictitious business name advertisement for four weeks.
After you get the DBA paperwork, take that paperwork for opening the Business Bank account - I chose Chase - within few days, your merchant credit card and business bank account (same day) will be set up.
Chase has an offer right now for they will deposit $200 into your business bank account once you have five qualified transactions.
Keeping the spirit of accounting - keeping proper bookkeeping - set up all your GoDaddy, wix.com, Gmail charges on your merchant bank account credit card.
Applying for trademark via LegalZoom - Cost for the basic trademark is $199 + 275(USPTO Fee). Do basic research of trademark class ahead of time - LegalZoom tried to sell me I should apply to many classes. So, be an educated buyer of services.
Fast forward to Jan 2019, when I took an e-commerce class from our Marketing Professor, leading up to setting up the Shopify site - which is my current platform.
Shopify has great tutorials, that take you step by step on how to set up the site, connect your Facebook Business Page, Connect your business Instagram page to Shopify. If you can contribute a couple of hours daily for two to four weeks, you should be able to do all of it by yourself.
It helped me to take the e-commerce class, as the class allowed me to build the website over the course of the quarter step by step while being a full-time homemaker, mother, and full-time employee at a startup.
Using Facebook, create a business account linked to your FB account.
Inside Shopify, you can connect your business account on Facebook with Shopify, thereby reaching out to more customers in the FB world.
The entire of 2020 and half of 2021, I paused my Shopify site and promotion, to ensure I follow safety guidelines, minimize travel to the post office, etc.
The journey continues post-COVID, I will keep adding my lessons learned, tips to share as I make progress on my journey to this blog.
Thank you for reading, and If I can do it, so can you, take the plunge, don't wait any longer. Best of luck to you!